Weimar Republic

Weimar Republic:

• Weimar Constitution- November 1918- Ebert told Hugo Preuss to draft up a new constitution.
• Germany was declared a 'democratic state' and a republic. It had a federal structure with 17 regional states, Lander, e.g. Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony.
• President:
• Right to dissolve the Reichstag. 
• Appoint and dismiss a chancellor.
• Supreme Commander of the A
• rmed Forces.
• Rule by decree at a time of National emergency to oversee the Reichstag- Article 48.
• Parliment- two houses- Reichstag and Reichsrat
• Reichstag:
• Main representative assembly and law amking body of the parliment.
• They consist of deputies elected every four years on the basis of a system of proportional representation.
• Allocated members to parliment from he official list of political party candidates.
• Distributed on the basis of one member fo every 60,000 votes in an electoral district.
• Reichsrat:
• Less important house in parliment. 
• It was made up members of representatives from all of the 17 state regional governments- Lander, which all held local representatives such as education, police.
• They could only delay or initiate proporals and the Reichstag overruled them.
• Bill of Rights:
• Personal liberty and the right to free speech. 
• Censorship was forbidden
• Equalit before the law of all Germans
• Religious freedom and no State Church was allowed.
• Welfare Provision, e.g. housing, disabled, orphans, protection of Labour.
• Supreme Court:
• Right wing judges- symapthetic to the Right wingers. 
• Created to settle different interpretations of law.
• 'Weimar was initially seen as 'the most advanced democracy in the world' The Constitution failed to control the conditions and cirumstanced in which it had to operate.
• Heuss said "Germany never conquered democracy for herself. Democracy never came to Germany... in the wake of defeat".
• It was unrealistic to imagine that any piece of paper could have resolved all Germany's problems after 1918.
• Treaty of Versailles in 1918- Woodrow Wilson- 14 plan- He drew up these points hoping it would create a more just world.
• Aims: to bring international disarmament, to apply the principle of self- determination, to create a League of Nations to maintain international peace.
• Clemenau- He was motiated by revenge and determined to gain financial compensation and to satisfy France's security concerns. His aim was to: 1) annex the Rhineland to create a buffer state.
• 2) Impose the major disarmament of Germany.
• 3) Impose heavy reparations in order to weaken Germany.
• 4) Get recompense from damage of the war in order to finance rebuilding.
• David Lloyd-George- he was keen to uphold British national interest.
• He at first wanted to seek revenge but knew that there needed to be a compromise. His aim was to: 1) guarantee British military security- to secure naval supremacy.
• 2) Keep  communism at bay.
• 3) Limit rench demands because he feared that excessively weakening Germany would have serious economic consequences for the European economy.
• Terms of the Treaty of Versailles:
• 1) Territorial arrangements- Alsace-Lorraine- Germany to return tehse provinces to France.
• 2) Austria- he union of Germany with Austria- Anschluss was forbidden.
• 3)13% of…